Boaters are an inventive and industrious group. With the high costs of owning and operating a sea going vessel, they have to be. Aside from normal maintenance, boaters spend a great deal of time performing their own upgrades and modifications, in most cases in an effort to improve the efficiency, durability, and safety of their vessels. Particularly when it comes to managing power, boaters will find all sorts of interesting ways to reduce their amp use and make the most of the power they produce onboard. Whether it's adapting a land based solar array to marine use, or stripping the guts out of an LED walkway light to create a makeshift anchor light, boaters will usually find a way if something looks possible. Although this kind of creativity and innovation has resulted in a lot of interesting and effective results, sometimes it is a good idea to see if the effort is really actually worth it. In the case of adapting LEDs to your vessel, this can be especially true.
About ten or so years ago when LEDs really began gaining attention due to new designs being able to provide better than meager light output, boaters began noticing how efficiently the LEDs produced light. On a boat, particularly smaller vessels with limited power generation and storage capabilities, managing power use can be a major affair, and lighting all stolpskyltar too often ends up falling victim to compromise and rationing as a result. On a boat carrying only 600 or so amp hours worth of power storage, the last thing you want to be doing is running a set of spreader lights for several hours, and you can pretty well forget illuminating the whole cabin for an entire night. That is unless you don't mind running a noisy and fuel hungry generator repeatedly. Since there are other devices like radios, stereos, radar, live wells, and even refrigerators and ac units being used, lighting is usually considered an extra that can be work around using flashlights, battery powered lanterns, and similar temporary light sources, in order to save power for more important equipment.
While rationing is OK and effective, it takes a lot away from the enjoyment and convenience of using your onboard lighting systems the way they were meant to be used. Think about it, would the spouse be happier being able to spend time below decks catching up on a good book for a few hours under the light of a well illuminated cabin, or would they rather try reading by the light of a candle or cheap lantern? This is the sort of thing which has led many boaters to consider upgrading their onboard lighting systems. Since options for improving onboard lighting are limited, the introduction of LEDs has become quite popular with boaters due to their very high efficiency and long life. A typical halogen cabin light pulling about 25 watts and 2.5 amps will produce about 425 lumens of light output, while an LED light of about 8 watts pulling less than an amp can produce the same amount of light. Clearly the LED holds a significant advantage in the efficiency department.
